Because of the appearance of the Lunar Spirit form, Su Hao became famous once again.
Unlike before, back then, Su Hao was just an ordinary high school student.
Now, though... he's a university student.
A prestigious university student.
In the eyes of ordinary people, a Spirit University student discovering a brand-new evolution form wasn't particularly surprising.
As a news headline, it was far less impactful than an ordinary high school student.
Since Su Hao couldn't be interviewed while at Whale Island University, it didn't even make it onto the trending list before fading away.
But in the eyes of insiders...
The appearance of the Lunar Spirit form caused a much bigger stir than the Dream Butterfly form.
It was only slightly less significant than the "Spiritual Energy Solidification" thesis.
The reason was simple.
The Dream Butterfly was still a Wood-type, merely showing a slight inclination toward illusion abilities.
But the Lunar Spirit was dual-type—a combination of the mutually exclusive attributes of Light and Darkness!
Mutually exclusive attributes!
The Alliance had records of many dual-type spirits, but only one final evolution form had ever possessed the mutually exclusive attributes of Water and Fire.
The appearance of the Lunar Spirit form represented a brand-new attribute combination.
It was the first spirit to simultaneously possess both Light and Dark attributes!
In the eyes of the higher-ups, its impact was no less than that of "Spiritual Energy Solidification."
...
At first, Su Hao didn't think that far ahead.
He just saw the dual attributes and couldn't resist evolving it.
He couldn't say that out loud.
Since that morning, Su Hao had been busy with his thesis. After "discussing" it with Master Yao, he published a simple paper—mainly introducing the Lunar Spirit form.
He flew back to the lab, stopping by the containment area to grab three Light-type spirits—since they hadn't been fully "tamed," those Light-type spirits hadn't been distributed to the various labs yet. Su Hao made a detour to pick up a few for recording data.
After more than two weeks of work, he finally finished the evolution thesis for the Lunar Spirit.
The gains were considerable.
Aside from the Alliance's fixed rewards, he also obtained some manuscript copies.
—Some research by Master Breeders on Light-type and Dark-type spirits.
—Brief insights from a Heavenly King-level Spirit Master on training methods for Light-type or Dark-type spirits.
The former provided him with 19 points of intelligence value.
The latter sparked ideas in Su Hao's mind... a little bit of inspiration for creating a combat form for the Lunar Spirit.
"Maybe, when I have time, I should go to Dragon Capital University and learn from that Dark-type Heavenly King."
While busy with his thesis, Su Hao didn't slack off on supervising his spirits' training.
Several Light-type and Dark-type move training methods had been unlocked.
With Butterfly's one-on-one guidance, the Lunar Spirit improved rapidly.
It was just... its split-personality tendencies were becoming more pronounced.
"Well, no big deal."
...
After the Lunar Spirit evolution paper was published, inside the grand provincial guild building in Tiannan Province.
Top floor.
Heavenly King Yan, Xia Yanghua, was reviewing the materials in his hands. The documents detailed Su Hao's achievements and evaluations of him from various masters.
"If I had known, I should have taken him as my disciple without hesitation back then!
"Forget it, forget it. Su Hao becoming the principal's disciple is what's most beneficial for him..."
Heavenly King Xia understood.
It was just a pity.
He never expected that Su Hao, whom he had only thought highly of, would cause such a stir in less than a year.
It was completely unlike a freshman!
The Tiannan Province guild was shaken again and again.
Heavenly King Xia thought for a moment, then made a call to summon someone.
The person who arrived was a man with a stern expression.
Heavenly King Xia looked at him and said, "Issue an order. Raise the protection level for Su Hao's family by another tier."
...
Back at school, Su Hao's daily life became very routine.
He just inserted a session of training with the Lunar Spirit into his original schedule.
His spirits were progressing quickly. The most obvious sign was that he had successfully cleared the second level of the illusion challenge.
"Too bad the enemies on the second level are in a 1+9 format.
"One Transcendent-level, nine Elite-level peak."
The gap was a bit large.
Su Hao had tried fighting that Transcendent-level spirit, and it was stronger than the Holy Radiance Spirit King.
After clearing the second level, Su Hao's ranking in the special training camp rose to 83rd—because he hadn't started the camp's missions yet, his total score was still relatively low.
He didn't care much.
He had earned quite a bit of real illusion realm access time and Omen Stone comprehension opportunities from selling the massive Light-element crystals.
—1,000 hours of access time and 100 comprehension sessions.
These didn't conflict with his monthly allocation from the training camp.
Su Hao had enough for now.
The Omen Stone comprehension opportunities were all used by Caw and Big Fatty Bear.
The real illusion realm had become Butterfly's research ground.
The Lunar Spirit was too weak to use either.
Erha Lin...
It occasionally got beaten up in the real illusion realm... training to survive amidst a thousand enemies.
Every spirit was improving.
Su Hao checked on them regularly.
"Butterfly has reached the Elite-level limit, but... it's still a bit short of the evolution conditions."
Its various attributes—spiritual energy, mental power, perception, and so on—had long been satisfied.
After all, it had consumed countless treasures and followed the most perfect cultivation plan.
Except for one thing...
Its illusion ability mastery wasn't sufficient.
The Fairy Butterfly was a Wood/Illusion dual-type spirit, requiring enough "illusion power" to drive the birth of a new attribute.
And illusion power... was too ethereal.
At that moment,
The panel showed that Butterfly's evolution success rate was 46%.
It was the first time Su Hao had seen the panel display a success rate when deducing a spirit's evolution.
"I'll hold off for now. Butterfly has only just reached the Elite-level limit, and its illusion techniques still have room for improvement...
"If there's no progress after a while, I'll consider evolution.
"If evolution fails, I can try again, but I'll need to wait to recover from the losses... I'd better not fail."
Just as Butterfly and Caw were both stuck at their bottlenecks, something happened in the training camp.
...
"What? The school team selection is starting this soon?"
Inside the training camp area, Central Battle Hall.
From the spectator stands, Su Hao looked ahead.
The battlefield in front was as large as eight football fields, with two towering platforms on the left and right, each dozens of meters high, resembling pillars.
They were jokingly called Spirit Pillars.
On the Spirit Pillars, two figures could be seen.
And on the field in front of them stood two imposing spirits.
Purple Lightning Wings!
Ice Emperor Fang!
"One of them is a substitute member of the school team, ranked eighth in the training camp.
"The other is ranked twelfth, but overall, the gap isn't that big."
Jiang Xiuqi, standing beside Su Hao, said.
"Even if he wins, he'll only be a substitute, but our Whale Island University's substitutes get plenty of playing time in the intercollegiate league..."
Su Hao understood the logic, but...
"Shouldn't the league be after finals? Why are they starting the selection now?"
"It's for team coordination later. Of course, if someone makes huge progress, they can still challenge the existing school team members and take their place.
"But everyone is improving. Easier said than done."
Jiang Xiuqi said, "With your abilities, you should be able to join the school team next year. Too bad I'm already a senior this year, with only one last intercollegiate league left. We won't be able to fight side by side.
"But in the new world, we'll still have the chance to fight together."
He spoke.
Su Hao looked at the battlefield.
Butterfly and the other spirits had been brought along to observe this rare battle between Whale Island University's top students.
To broaden their horizons.
To gain experience.
He stood together with Senior Jiang Xiuqi.
One was among the strongest students in the entire school.
The other, Su Hao, was also a well-known figure on campus.
With his handsome face, he immediately drew the attention of many training camp students.
"So that's the Lunar Spirit. Truly amazing."
"Su Hao is really impressive, especially in evolution form research."
"I heard he's already a Senior Breeder. If it were me, I'd focus entirely on being a breeder... He clearly has more talent in breeding."
"Good thing he's a bit more ordinary in spirit training, so we 'seniors' can barely keep up."
"Hey, a brand-new form isn't necessarily a good thing. Who knows, if he can't figure out the final evolution, his spirit might be stuck at Elite-level forever."
Many whispered among themselves.
Their gazes at Su Hao held both admiration and envy.